Neovim from Scratch to BEAST Mode

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It took me 12 months to make Neovim look like a worthy code editor.

This was 9 years ago.

Today, with one small installation you get fuzzy pickers, LSPs, text objects, debuggers and MORE.

Honestly, if you have the Vim basics and would like a quickstart Neovim pre-baked with everything you need, there's almost no need to make an effort, thanks to distributions like LazyVim.

The traditional approach to Neovim setup has always been a rite of passage - slowly discovering plugins, copying configurations from random git repos, and praying everything holds together.

As one developer put it:

This approach often leads to bloated configurations, conflicting plugins, slowness, and eventually, frustration.

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​LazyVim changes the game entirely

Instead of piecing together your perfect setup, you start with a carefully curated distribution that includes everything you need - from language servers and auto-completion to debugging tools and even AI integration.

The installation is super simple: one git clone command and you're good to go.

What's more impressive is the performance - a 25-millisecond startup time out of the box, something that was nearly impossible to achieve with manual configuration (heck, just one plugin added would probably not be lazy loaded - a default feature of lazyvim, making a fresh Neovim with 1 plugin, potentially, slower...)

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The real magic lies in LazyVim's extensibility.

Need Golang support? That's one command away.

Want GitHub Copilot integration? Just enable it from the extras menu.

The system is built around lazy-loading, meaning plugins only load when you need them, keeping your environment responsive and punchy.

If you want to customize anything, from key mappings to UI elements, LazyVim provides a clean, organized structure for your configurations.

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However, some things are still missing

No one's perfect, and even if they are, as the saying goes, there's no one-size-fits-all. Especially when it comes to Neo/Vim users...

So, I did have to add some of my own.

While LazyVim does come with 80%, and the rest 19% are covered by extras, I had to have some of mini.nvim's goodness that doesn't come with the base or extras.

It also lacks other bits I love like pencil.vim, and since I also use my Neovim as a text editor for all purposes, I wanted to make sure it's done the way I like it.

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It's not easy to throw away 12 years of configuration

But, if I'm honest, I was mostly switching things up, upgrading plugins from Tpope's to Folke's, the mini.nvim and now whatever lazyvim comes with.

There's no point in staying behind.

I was critisized A LOT with comments saying "does this guy ever finds time to code with all these editor changes?". And it hit a nerve, because at some point, it wasn't wrong. The ricing trap is real, but it's also part of the fun.

LazyVim can be the cure for time loss for those of use who can't help but change things up with the next shiny plugin the moment it drops...

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Thank you for reading.
Feel free to reply directly with any question or feedback.
Have a great weekend!